Sunny reception for Abigail Breslin in 'Janie Jones'

Little Miss Sunshine wasn't quite as sunny, but she was still plucky and determined in Janie Jones.

Abigail Breslin, now 14, plays a budding singer-songwriter in Janie Jones, the sweetly comic tale of a 13-year-old girl who meets the rocker father she never knew (Alessandro Nivola) when her mother (Elisabeth Shue) drops her off en route to rehab.

The film had its premiere Friday night in Roy Thomson Hall to an enthusiastic crowd who gave it a standing ovation. Nivola attended with wife Emily Mortimer and their 7-year-old son. Shue was also on hand, as was Breslin, in a black dress and leggings and black leather jacket. Nivola and Breslin performed live at a party Tuesday night at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto.

Nivola's character is a bit of a wash-up on the music circuit, and a hard-partying hothead. When he hears he has a child, he doesn't take the news well. But the pair slowly forms a touching bond.

Click read more to see video of Breslin singing.

The film was written and directed by David M. Rosenthal, who based it loosely on his own experience meeting the daughter he fathered while still a teen. They met when she was 11, but unlike Nivola's character in the film, he knew about her and she was often on his mind.

"It was a constant," Rosenthal said. "I would write about it, I made a short film about it. But I was scared of it and immature and reticent. It took me a while to embrace it."

His daughter Julia, now 22, a production assistant on the film, was also on hand at the premiere and Rosenthal introduced her to the crowd.

Rosenthal is quick to point out that his main characters did all their own singing. Nivola played a rocker before in 2002's Laurel Canyon, but this was Breslin's first such foray. Her low-key vocal style is worlds away from the grinning, bespectacled aspiring beauty queen in Little Miss Sunshine who so hilariously bumped and grinded to Rick James' Super Freak.

"A lot of people think 'Oh movie magic, they didn't really sing'," says Rosenthal "But they did really sing and they do really play."

Breslin had some trepidation tackling the musical aspects.

"It was really scary," she said. "I'd never done anything like it before, so it was nerve-wracking, but it was also fun. I love the songs in the movie. And I think if you're singing something you don't like, it never comes out as good."

The live Toronto performances were well-received, even if the sound system was less than ideal. The songs in the film were written by Gemma Hayes and Eef Barzelay, who were also on hand for Friday's premiere.

"We each did separate sets just because we were both on the road in the weeks leading up the festival so we just couldn't pin down enough time to rehearse, " says Nivola. "I've sung here and there. There have been jobs that have come up that have demanded I do some singing."

Nivola's musical experience intimidated Breslin a bit.

"That's what's most nerve-wracking is when you're working with somebody who's actually a really good singer and guitar player and nobody knows if I can sing or not," Breslin hsays. "He's performed before and I'm like clutching the microphone."

When the movie shot in Iowa, Nivola had just come off a tough shoot overseas, speaking French and playing an emotionally guarded character in Coco Before Chanel.

"It was very technical because of the language and the character was incredibly withheld," says Nivola. "So when this role came along it was just like heaven to cut loose that way and be playing somebody who's not self-censored in any way. And the fact that I'd had some comfort with doing music already, it just felt like the whole process was a kind of reward after having suffered through Coco."

Nivola and Breslin have a believable on-screen chemistry as father and daughter, initially tentatively, then poignantly, connecting over the course of the film.

"The fact that we were only just getting to know each other played into the nature of those scenes well," says Nivola. "So much of the film between us is this kind of awkward dance that we play. In my mind the movie's sort of a romance between a father and a daughter that happens very slowly. "

His character, Ethan, was on the road touring, either on stage or brawling in bars. The quiet scenes between father and daughter were a highlight for the actors as well as the audience.

"The scenes when we're driving and all the apparatus of the film is gone and it's nighttime and you've been up for a long time, I feel like that in those moments some of the reality is allowed to settle in a way that it can't when there's all the chaos of a film set going on in the middle of the day and everybody's racing to and fro," he says. "I remember really enjoying doing those scenes. Those are really sweet scenes."

As the teenage Janie, Breslin casually smoked cigarettes. But she is quick to draw a distinction between herself and the character.

"They're really disgusting," she said. "And I'm so anti-smoking so, it was just the character, not me."

She also had the opportunity in the film to pull off something illegal. She was only 13 when shooting it and she drove a car.

"I actually drove in the parking lot and it was awesome, "she said. "I did the actual stunt thing where I almost hit a car. Everybody was fearful those 2 days. We had this one production assistant, Ben, who was in the back seat while I was driving. I could tell he was so afraid and thinking 'Why did they put me in the car with this lunatic?' "

But the illicit driving experience was every kid's dream.

"It was fun," says Breslin "My brothers (Spencer, age 18 and Ryan, 25) got their licenses both of them like 3 months ago. I'm like 'I'm more experienced than you guys are.'"

Will people be ready to see the now auburn-haired Breslin--who was nominated for an Oscar for Sunshine -- in this kind of role?

"I liked the story and the character," Breslin says. "She's a really good person. She's not a bad girl. She's just doing what she has to do to get by in the life she has to live. She puts all of her negativity into her music which is like a really positive thing to do."- Claudia Puig

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